Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Bill cooked this up for dinner last night, inspired by the cover recipe on this month's Food and Wine: "a delicious tangle of chewy rice noodles, shrimp, squid and cashews." Fiery hot and satisfyingly full of all the exciting sweet-salty-tangy-herbaceous flavors we crave in Thai food. Mr. Toles was very pleased with himself -- and even more so today -- after the leftovers turned into spicy summer rolls for lunch.(Photo by Dana Gallagher)Ingredients

1. In a medium bowl, cover the vermicelli in cold water and soak for 30 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, in a mortar, pound the red Thai chiles and garlic cloves to a paste with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, boiling water and the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar and pound until the sugar is dissolved. Let the dressing stand for 30 minutes. 3. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Fill a bowl with ice water. Add the shrimp to the boiling water and cook until white throughout and curled, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to the ice water. Add the scallops to the boiling water and cook until white and firm, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the scallops to the ice water. Add the squid to the boiling water and cook just until firm, about 45 seconds. Transfer the squid to the ice water. Drain all of the seafood and pat dry. 4. Bring a fresh saucepan of water to a boil and refill the bowl with ice water. Drain the vermicelli, add to the boiling water and cook just until al dente, about 1 minute. Drain and transfer to the ice water. Drain again and pat dry. Cut the vermicelli into 3-inch lengths. 5. In a large bowl, toss the seafood with the vermicelli, tomatoes, bean sprouts, mint, red onion, cashews and chile dressing. Line a platter with the lettuce leaves and top with the seafood salad. Garnish with cilantro and serve.

MAKE AHEAD All of the components can be prepared up to 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately. Toss the salad just before serving.

Friday, April 18, 2008

This recipe came courtesy of Robin Miller, whose plan-ahead methods for feeding a family are, in my opinion, pure genius. The hot mustard is necessary here, not to be left out. I served this with Nigella's roasted potatoes last night, minus the goose fat...

Coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray. Season both sides of salmon with salt and pepper. Place salmon in prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the Dijon, honey, water, lemon juice, mustard powder, and garlic powder. Remove 1/2 cup of the mustard sauce and set aside. Pour the remaining sauce over the salmon fillets in the pan. Roast the salmon, uncovered, until fork tender, about 10 - 12 minutes.

Stir the dill into the reserved mustard sauce. Serve 1/3 of the roasted salmon (4 fillets, each about 4 ounces after cooking) with the dill-spiked mustard sauce spooned over the top. Refrigerate the remaining salmon up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months; thaw it completely in the refrigerator or microwave for 3 to 5 minutes on LOW before using.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

After a monster day I called Bill from the office and asked whether maybe he could hit the blog and turn out this quick chicken piccata for dinner, since I was running late. By the time I got home an hour or so later, he was in a state of giddy near hysteria, with raw chicken spread out all over the table and a maniacal gleam in his eye as he pounded cutlets, danced around the kitchen and yelled into the phone to Cherrie about how there was no way this was a real recipe. This was obviously an impossible obstacle course I had set up to teach him a lesson about how much I go through to cook dinner every night...(Luckily, Cherrie had my back. Thanks Cherrie!) It really is an easy recipe...and scrumptious...

Sprinkle a small amount of water on a large plastic sheet of plastic wrap. Place the breast halves on top of the plastic and sprinkle again with water. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap and pound with a rolling pin or meat pounder until about 1/4-inch thick.

Mix the flour with the salt and pepper in a shallow pie plate. Heat half of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Working in 2 batches, place the chicken in the flour mixture and turn to coat on all sides. Shake off the excess flour and add to the skillet. Cook until lightly browned and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate or platter and cover loosely with foil. Repeat with the remaining oil and chicken.

Pour off the fat from the skillet and return the skillet to the heat. Add the chicken stock and lemon juice. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, stirring to pick up and browned bits in the bottom of the pan. Simmer for 3 minutes. Return the chicken to the skillet and simmer, turning often, until warmed through and the sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and the capers. Season with salt and pepper and heat just until the butter has melted. Serve on warmed plates with a spoonful of the skillet sauce, topped with lemon slices and parsley.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

My mom makes this all the time. Its incredibly simple (and elegant and satisfying.)Florence Fabricant wrote the recipe up in the NY Times years ago, in an article on new dishes for the Seder table.

She wrote: "Though Le Bernardin, unlike some restaurants in New York, will not be serving a special Passover menu, Eric Ripert, the chef and one of the owners, has come up with an appropriate dish: steamed halibut in borscht with warm chive-horseradish sauce.It is a delicious and visually stunning dish that hits the correct flavor notes for the holiday menu ... One could chill the sauce and, instead of the halibut, substitute ovals of gefilte fish ..."

1. Heat oil in a heavy 3-quart saucepan. Add onions and fennel and cookslowly about 5 minutes, until softened. Tie garlic, thyme, parsley andchopped cabbage in a double thickness of cheesecloth and add it tosaucepan along with stock and beets. Simmer 15 minutes. Season totaste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Discard cheesecloth andits contents. To serve the dish chilled, refrigerate beet mixture at least 4hours or overnight.

2. Bring 3 cups water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add juliennedcabbage leaves, cook just until bright green, then drain. Set leaves aside,covered, to keep warm; for a cold dish, refrigerate.

3. Mix creme fraiche, sour cream or mayonnaise with horseradish, sugarand chives. If using mayonnaise, thin it beforehand with 2 tablespoonswater. This sauce can be gently warmed in a small saucepan or chilled toserve cold.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

My mom is a huge steak salad fan...or she was, anyway, before she went 95 percent vegetarian. I bet the steak salad I whipped up tonight would still tempt her though. It was Bill's first steak salad. He gets it. The tastes of corn and tomatoes and basil and seared steak seem imperative right now, to gt us through this looooong cold early spring.

Slice the steak into a few pieces. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Mix all marinade ingredients together in a large bowl. Marinate the steak, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, and up to two days. Preheat the broiler and broil the steak until medium. Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then slice thinly across the bias. Serve warm, along with any accumulated juices, on top of the dressed salad. Pass extra vinaigrette at the table if anyone wants it.

About Us

Bill always held out hope that someday he'd marry a woman who could make spoonbread like his grandmother. After a long and glorious bachelorhood, he finally found what he was looking for.
Spoonbread For Hieronymus charts the beginning of our life together, one meal at a time.